Bitcoin Rallies Back to 66,000 After Trump Promised Pro-Crypto Legislation If He Gets Elected

Bitcoin Rallies Back to 66,000 After Trump Promised Pro-Crypto Legislation If He Gets Elected

Stay up to date with our monthly market commentary:

• Bitcoin price rallied back to 66,000 following crypto-positive statements by U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump
• Spot Ethereum ETFs started trading on U.S. exchanges
• Bitcoin (BTC) is up 9.23%, while Ether (ETH) is down 1.33% versus last month

Market Overview - July

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 9.23% in July, reclaiming the $66,000 level to close out the month.

Bitcoin's price made an impressive comeback in the final week of July, rallying to levels past $65,000 from a monthly low of $53,000. It hit $69,000 on July 29 before reverting to the current price of $66,000.

The performance is attributed to three main factors: reduced selling pressure after German authorities finished selling their seized Bitcoin holdings; continued capital inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs; and the strong pro-crypto statements from former U.S. President Donald Trump.

BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) maintained its position as the biggest contender in the Bitcoin ETFs market. During the month, the asset recorded inflows totaling $523 million on a single day, which marked one of its best days since March 18, when the fund added $840 million.

Ethereum also had an exciting month with the launch of spot ETH ETFs in the United States on July 22. Blackrock's ETHA had the largest inflows, totaling $618 million, while Bitwise' ETHW saw $279 million of inflows, as per data from Farside.

U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump made his much-anticipated appearance at the 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Conference, where he promised to turbocharge cryptocurrency adoption if elected president in the upcoming elections. Trump said he would spearhead a Bitcoin advisory group that would design transparent and friendly regulations to benefit the industry, among his several other Bitcoin-positive statements.

Crypto Asset Market Performance Review

Crypto assets on the top 10 list by market capitalization finished the month with notable gains led by XRP, Solana, and Bitcoin with 36.60%, 30.94%, and 9.23%, respectively.

The Bitcoin price recovered from a $53,000 low and rallied to a monthly high of over $69,000, boosted by decreasing selling pressure, increasing capital inflows, and positive political sentiment in the U.S., such as Trump's promise to reshuffle SEC leadership and Senator Cynthia Lummis's proposal for the Treasury to directly purchase 1 million BTC.

Anticipation for a settlement between XRP and its long-running lawsuit with the SEC has fueled a rally that saw the altcoin gain 36.5% in July. Court filings indicate the commission could amend its complaints against the Binance cryptocurrency exchange with respect to "Third Party Crypto Asset Securities." Many have interpreted this move as a saving grace for Solana and Polygon's MATIC to not face accusations of being unregistered securities.

Solana attracted gains in July thanks to two major reasons: the SEC's withdrawal of filings that classify SOL as unregistered securities, as well as heightened anticipation of a Solana-based exchange-traded fund following the launch of spot ETH ETFs.

Bitcoin Tech Update

Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions continue to make waves, with Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock announcing an innovative breakthrough on its network.

Rootstock (RSK) stated they had succeeded in interactively validating a powerful cryptographic proof called the SNARK proof, which represents a major advance for the largest blockchain to accommodate faster transactions, programmability, and cheaper L2 protocols. According to the team, the milestone was made possible thanks to BitVMX, a computing approach designed by Robin Linus to help facilitate Ethereum-style smart contracts on Bitcoin.

Institutional Interest in Bitcoin

July was an eventful month for institutional digital asset investors, as Blackrock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) surpassed a Nasdaq-tracking ETF in YTD flows.

BlackRocks's Surpasses QQQ, the Nasdaq-tracking ETF

IBIT outperformed Nasdaq-tracking ETF QQQ in year-to-date net flows. QQQ tracks the market capitalization of the top 100 non-financial companies on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The Bitcoin ETF fund is now ranked #4 by ETF inflows in 2024, while the FBTC spot Bitcoin ETF by Fidelity is #8. In addition, IBIT recorded one of its largest inflows in a single day since March 18 after adding $523 million on July 22.

Pension Funds Are Adding Spot Bitcoin ETFs

According to Jersey City Mayor Stephen Fulop, Jersey City's pension funds are going to follow in the footsteps of other retirement funds like those of Michigan and Wisconsin, which have allocated a small percentage of their portfolio to spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Wisconsin filed with the SEC about its exposure to spot Bitcoin ETF in May 2024, while Michigan State disclosed in a June 30 filing.

Bitcoin on Balance Sheets

Prominent miner Marathon Digital (MARA) declared that they will adopt a full HODL strategy after purchasing Bitcoin worth $100 million. The company said it would hold onto all the Bitcoin it mines on its balance sheet. As of June 30, Marathon's balance sheet held $268 million cash.

‍*Closing price data is from July 31, 2024

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